Yes, I’m sure you’ve all heard: it’s the first snow of the season in these here parts and, um, it’s a lot of snow. A couple feet of snow. The sky opened up started throwing out snow at 9:00 last night and it literally has not stopped since. Not even to catch its breath or anything! We took the dogs for their last walk of the night fairly early while there were only a couple of inches accumulated.

I fell twice, handed my leash over to HP and it goes without saying that I will not be walking them alone until the weather eases up a bit. In fact, I may not be walking them at all and just tagging along for moral support.

See, here’s the thing. My dog, the Rottweiler? She’s 83 pounds. Small by breed standards, yes, but she’s 83 pounds of pure muscle. She’s 27 inches tall and she’s powerful as hell. Easton is tiny for a Boxer, he’s 56 pounds but that doesn’t mean that he can’t knock me to my butt when he pulls (It was his leash I was holding last night in the two inches of snow when I went down.) Normally I walk them alone first thing in the morning, HP gets them mid-day, we both take them in the evening, and then HP takes them for the last walk of the night sometime after 10. It’s a good mix for us because I loathe the late night walk and he loathes and early morning walk. The problem is that I kind of suck at walking them alone. When they’re good, and the weather is nice, and there are NO OTHER DOGS OR HUMANS AROUND it’s easy peasy. They’re both well behaved, for the most part, and walk nicely. However. If they decide they want to investigate a person or dog I am fucked.

One bright, weekend morning this summer during our morning walk there was a middle aged couple about 12 feet away who was SO EXCITED to see them. “Can we pet the dogs, oh my gosh we love dogs! They’re so pretty they’re so good!” The dogs sensed the excitement and it was all over for me…my face hit the sidewalk so fast I didn’t see it coming and they just straight up dragged me for three yards. Aside from being embarrassing, it was a little scary. Thankfully they were headed for the love and affection of two welcoming people and not trying attack some frisky canine, but still.

On a dark, rainy morning in early fall I was out with them and we happened upon a woman walking her dog about 20 feet away. I was going to turn and take Kima and Easton in another direction, but the woman’s dog was rambunctious and instigated a greeting. My dogs went for it and in the slick grass without traction I was doubly fucked: I ended up in a water skiing position with my two dogs pulling me and me finally sitting my ass on the ground while they pulled me the last dozen feet. I screamed, “OH SHIIIIIIIIIT!” It was involuntary. You would’ve screamed it too.

Also, both of these incidents occurred while Kima had her choke collar on. In fact, she never, ever gets walked without the choke collar because she is just that strong. I ASSURE you that it doesn’t hurt her. In a zillion years I would never consider the collar if it caused her one bit of pain. The goal is that at a certain point (the point where she is MISBEHAVING) that it causes her discomfort. At least enough for me to reign her in.

(It doesn’t really work that well, but it’s monumentally better than me trying to walk the two of them and not have the choke collar on her.)

Excuse the really poor quality of the camera phone and lack of lighting, but HP texted me this pic last week, the night we were going to drop the dogs off at the vet to be boarded for the next five days. He explained to me when I got home that he had looked at his watch, saw that I’d be home shortly, turned to the dogs and said, “Mama’s coming home” very calmly. Next thing you know they were positioned here, right up until the moment they spotted me in the parking lot at which time they bolted to the front door to endure the rest of the wait.

So I did. It was almost 10:00 at night, pitch black outside and we were alone with the dogs. Easton always gets to run off leash during our walks but Kima is always tethered to me. HP was right there so I let go of her leash and they darted in circles, jumping on each other, and wrestling in the dark. They went way off to the treeline and HP whistled for them to come back.

They started bolting toward us at full speed and my brain almost had a moment to process before Kima ran THROUGH me at full force. She swiped both of my legs out, ran under me, and I came down flat on my back. We were all quiet and I only half remember HP in an almost whisper, “Baby? Are you ok?”

I nodded yes and then looked around and realized I was on the ground. And started laughing. Hard.

My big girl LAID ME OUT. Once I stood up and we assessed that nothing was broken, sprained, and I hadn’t landed in dog poop we didn’t stop laughing for an hour. I was a little shaken up but hot damn it was funny.

I have revised my resume for the sixth time in a month and it’s definitely the strongest version yet. Well, we’ll see about that I suppose. I applied to a few jobs in Denver this morning and a boatload of local postings as well. I suppose something has to stick soon? Right?

Last night I broiled up some eggplant with just a little olive oil drizzled over it and salt and pepper. I ate a few slices for dinner smothered in one of my all time favorite, no cook sauces:

Sweet Pepper Tomato Sauce

-1/4 – 1/3 cup diced tomatoes (can use fresh or canned)

-1/3 red bell pepper

-1 tsp olive oil

-1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes

-water, broth, or other liquid to desired consistency (I use very little and keep it thick)

-salt, pepper, basil, parsely

Mix everything in the magic bullet and voila! Delicious, sweet sauce!

I had a little sauce left over and thought that I could take it to work for a snack with some more of the eggplant and then it occurred to me to just add the eggplant to the sauce and blend it. I ended up with a sweet, babaganoush-ish/tapenade type dip. I cut up some carrot sticks and I can’t wait until I’m hungry in a coupld hours to devour it!

Off to the gym tonight for some chest and arms plus cardio. I’ve been good about getting in 3-4 miles at least 4 times a week. If I can get it to a consistent 5 times per week I’ll be very pleased!

I picked a penny up off the ground yesterday because it was heads up. How long does it take for the luck to kick in?

Last evening we took the dogs to the park to play, run, and get tired. It worked spectacularly! There were four dogs total and Kima took immediately to a 15 pound white dog that came in and hit the park running.

Literally.

This little dog started sprinting as soon as she passed through the gate and Kima took off after her. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kima run like that! Circle after circle they were balls to the wall. If the little dog stopped Kima bumped her with her nose to encourage her to keep going. Go she did.

After a solid ten minutes of this activity Easton realized that he was not the center of Kima’s doggie universe and he. Was. Jealous.

He began chasing Kima chasing the little white dog. Except he was trying to jump on her back, bite her neck, growled and barked at her (in the most loving way possible) and just generally shouted PAY ATTENTION TO ME. Kima completely ignored him and kept going even while he jaw was on her neck.

It was absolute, pure hilarity!

Of course once we got back to the house they curled up in the dog bed together, one’s head on the other or crossing paws.

STAY CONNECTED

AMYELLA

Amyella (pronounced Amy-ella) is a pseudonym for Amy Levitt, a fitness and health food fanatic and a beach girl at heart. She has been sharing her sometimes nonsensical thoughts and self-amusing stories online since 2002 and currently spends a good deal of her time wrangling her 90 pound Rottweiler and 60 pound Boxer. Which is quite a show.The origin of the name Amyella.